Inclement weather put a damper on the Jewish National Fund’s ambitious nationwide tree-planting program Monday, on the occasion of Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish festival of trees.
Plans called for outdoor events all over Israel involving tens of thousands of children and new immigrants.
But the winter would not cooperate. Many ceremonial tree-plantings had to be canceled because of the steady downpour that turned the soil into a quagmire.
Israel is experiencing one of the worst winters on record. More than a quarter-million trees have been uprooted or fatally damaged by freak winds and snowstorms that hit the country earlier this month, JNF reported.
Mordechai Ruah, head of JNF’s forestry department, called the damage “unprecedented.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
